Mar 17, 2017

Philips marks World Sleep Day with awareness initiatives in major Indian cities

To launch Centre of Excellence to train doctors on diagnosing sleep disorders

New Delhi, India– Philips Healthcare India today marked World Sleep Day 2017 by announcing plans to extend sleep camps and launch a Centre of Excellence for training doctors on diagnosing sleep disorders in major Indian cities in 2017. Currently, India is suspected to have over 91 million people suffering from sleep apnea, a major cause of sleep disorders.

The Centre of Excellence will provide training to doctors on diagnosis and treatment of sleep associated disordered breathing. By providing certified training, the Centre will encourage doctors to diagnose and treat patients for sleep disorders across major cities in India.

While the Centre will provide specific training to doctors, the sleep camps will raise awareness on sleep disorders and the necessity of visiting sleep labs and seeking medical attention for healthy and sound sleep.

Reiterating its commitment towards training sleep technicians, Philips will also continue to train staff and assist hospitals in setting up sleep labs across the country. Till date Philips has trained over 400 sleep technicians and guided the launch of 500 sleep labs in India.

“Awareness on sleep disorders is rising – people are increasingly looking at lack of sleep as a potential health issue. But a lot needs to be done, especially in tier-II cities. At Philips, we will continue to drive awareness on sleep disorders and map peoples’ sleep patterns in sleep labs. Sleep disorders and their relation with potentially life threatening conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cardiac arrests cannot be ignored” said Harish R, Head of Sleep & Respiratory Care at Philips India.

Dr Abhijeet Deshpande, MD & CEO, International Institute of Sleep Sciences, and Senior Sleep Consultant, “Sleep is not just a time out of daily activity but it is an essential and active phase of life! There are 84 known sleep disorders, most of which occur when you are fast asleep. Due to which majority of the population is ignorant about it. Some sleep disorders such as sleep apnea are silent killers and are usually associated with one or more co-morbidities like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension to mention a few. Good news is that majority of sleep problems are perfectly treatable and in many cases there is a dramatic change in the quality of life in the treated person.”

Philips Healthcare India continues educating people on the symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) like unwarranted daytime sleepiness and trouble in concentrating which can have an impact on productivity, lead to accidents and lower the overall quality of life. Not only does this affect general lifestyle patterns but chronic sleep disorder could also lead to graver health issues like cardiac conditions, strokes, neurological disorders, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and irregular heartbeats.

In India, incidence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) varied from 4.4% to 13.7%. The prevalence of OSA is high in Northern India with 13.7% of the population reporting the syndromes. Statistics reveal that OSA in Indian males varied from 4.4% to 19.7% while amongst females it ranged from 2.5% to 7.4%. In context to OSA’s prevalence in different age groups, the elderly have been observed to have high snoring and high excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with 27% being habitual snorers. OSA is also correlated with heart failure which is 12-16% more prevalent in OSA patients. It has also been observed that approximately 60-70% of OSA patients are obese.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2016 sales of EUR 17.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.